Our Second Accident

I should have known when I started the day by scraping the car mirror on the gate … again. (We need about two inches of extra clearance on either side to avoid this occasional problem!)

Yet the day progressed without further incident until early evening, when I piled the kids into our car to drive a friend to her home a few minutes away.

All was well as I approached the intersection where I needed to turn left. My light was green, and I was just turning the wheel when a huge TranSantiago bus crossed in front of me – whether running a red light, or due to faulty timing with the street lights, I’m still not sure.

To avoid being hit by the bus, I braked … and was promptly rear-ended by the white van behind me.

To make matters worse, I was now halfway into the intersection and cars were coming over a blind hill directly towards me.

Not knowing what to do, I began honking the horn to alert the coming drivers that I was in their path!

After what seemed like an eternity, I was able to make the turn and find a place to pull over. The driver of the white van had made eye contact with me in the rearview mirror, using hand signals to make sure we were okay, and I expected him to pull over behind me.

But he, like the driver of the bus, didn’t stop.

I guess you could say … welcome to driving in Chile!

Praise the Lord, only the covering of one of the rear lights was broken and all of us in the car emerged unscathed from the incident. Even the kids did really well at not panicking despite Mommy’s confused and somewhat frantic reaction!

I wish that were the end of the story.

On the way home, I now very carefully pulled onto a road which is normally two-way. I saw no signs indicating differently, so as I approached my intersection I drove into the appropriately marked left turning lane, turned on my blinker and made sure there was no oncoming traffic before making my turn.

I did not think to look at the lane immediately to my left, on the other side of a concrete divider (where normally traffic would be coming the opposite way.) Thus, I never saw what happened – and thankfully, there was no ensuing crash! - but from the screeching of tires and honking of horns I realized that the road had been temporarily declared one-way, as it is at certain times of day, and I had cut someone off while making my turn.

I think that upset me almost more than the rear-ending! Who changes streets from one-way to two-way, anyway?? And if a lane is marked as a turning lane then it should be a turning lane, right?? Aargh!!

And then the day ended as it began. After bringing in the New Year, as we backed out of my sister’s very tight road with the neighbors cars parked closely on either side, our mirror got hung up on a tall metal garbage basket close to the curb. Only this time my husband was driving … and that is my one consolation!

Most importantly, we are safe and healthy and for that we give God thanks.

(But Pedro did say he is ready to give the parking lot car repair guys some really good business again!)